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<title>Design Is Win: Gamic Action In “Baba Is You” by QuickTimeEvents</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28949541">Design Is Win: Gamic Action In “Baba Is You”</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuickTimeEvents/pseuds/QuickTimeEvents'>QuickTimeEvents</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Baba is You (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:41:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>906</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28949541</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuickTimeEvents/pseuds/QuickTimeEvents</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Design Is Win: Gamic Action In “Baba Is You”</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When designing any good puzzle game, the first step is to figure out how gamic action works within the game. Basically put, any time a game developer adds something to a game, they’re not just adding that thing. They are also adding the interactions between that thing and everything else in the game. For instance, if the developer adds a box to the level, the developer has to know how that box will interact with the level boundaries, the player, and any other objects that might be in the level. Proper handling of this idea is integral to any puzzle game, and Baba Is You has, I believe, the best handling of gamic action I have ever seen.<br/>
Baba Is You has a very unique system of writing and following rules. Objects in Baba Is You do not intrinsically have rules. Instead, objects have bits of Text ascribed to them with different Rules and Conditions , and when these are organized into coherent sentences, objects come alive. The goal is simple: Make You and Win occupy the same space. The fact that both of these can be uncoupled from their respective objects, just like everything else, makes for some really interesting puzzle mechanics. Sometimes you have to find a way to control something clear across a level. Sometimes you have to control the entire level(Wall Is You, etc.). Sometimes there is no object designated as Win and the player must find an object to turn into Win or simply turn the You object into Win, thereby completing the puzzle. And it doesn’t stop there! Baba Has Baba makes it so Baba drops an instance of the Baba object when destroyed, making him effectively immortal Players can use modifiers such as Not and And to affect the gameplay; for instance, if Not Rock Is Push, then everything except the rock can be pushed. There are dozens more tiles I could talk about, and potentially MILLIONS of combinations, enough so that, with the advent of the Level Designer, players have been able to turn Baba Is You into a full-stack, Turing-complete code development environment! I’ve seen people make 2048 clones, Games Of Life, and even fully fleshed-out platformers just by moving Text tiles around! Normally, games have a two-dimensional gamic action matrix, graphing how individual objects interact with every other object in the game. Because of how Baba Is You changes the rules, creating such a graph would be nigh impossible, as not only would one have to know how the level acts in an instant, they would also have to know how potential rule changes would affect the gameplay! The substance of the game is intensely complicated, but because it’s all based on simple sentences that are written on the play field, it’s quite easy to understand, while still remaining satisfying to overcome.<br/>
Of course, no game is complete without some levels through which to move. Given its status as a puzzle game, Baba Is You has a lot of elements that it needs to introduce to the players. Baba Is You does this to great effect, to the point that sometimes the player might not even realize they are being taught about the game! The game is really good about taking advantage of player’s preconceived notions of how games work, as most game mechanics are introduced with the typical object. Flag Is Win, Rock Is Push, Lava Is Hot, et cetera. They even introduce Defeat as a Skull just so the player has that visual aid the first time they interact with it! There are of course, tiles that you can’t introduce like that; for instance, there’s no real way to visualize “Not” in a game. When the game has to introduce mechanics such as these, it does so by creating levels that fit within the learning curve of the entire game, while keeping the sentences the new word is involved in simple, like taking “Not” out of “Rock Is Not Push” to clear out the rocks and make a path to the exit. The key idea here is trust. Baba Is You knows what kind of person would play it. It understands that the player can most likely reason out what the game is trying to get them to do; however, it also understands the moments that get a bit overwhelming, and backs off a little. The game constantly teaches the player how it works without becoming overwhelming on one side of the spectrum or boring on the other. Tying it all together, the world map is organized in such a way as to lightly suggest a path players could take, but on the whole letting the player choose which levels they want to attempt as the world opens up, offering a sense of freedom. There is also a word called “Level” that a player can manipulate with some very interesting effects. I won’t spoil too much here, but once you get to the end of the game, you’ll notice some particularly interesting effects.<br/>
Baba Is You is a gold standard among puzzle games. The game is complex and varied, yet the mechanics are organized so as to create a smooth learning curve. The levels are organized so as to create a sense of achievement as well as freedom, while never becoming too overbearing or lenient. I truly believe anybody who wants to design games for a living should play, and learn from, this title.</p>
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